Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi

Argentina’s First National Park Started With One Person Giving Away Land

In 1903, Francisco Pascasio Moreno (known as Perito Moreno, the word means “expert”) donated 75 square kilometers of land in the Lake District to the Argentine government, on one condition: that it be used for a national park. He had been the first Argentine to reach Lake Nahuel Huapi in 1875, had spent years mapping territory that was then Mapuche land and largely unknown to the Buenos Aires administration, and he understood what he was looking at. The official park opened in 1922 as Parque Nacional del Sur, the name changed to Nahuel Huapi in 1934, and it remains Argentina’s oldest protected area.

The backstory matters because Perito Moreno’s name is better known internationally for the glaciers of El Calafate, which were named after him, than for the park he actually created. Nahuel Huapi gets overshadowed by its own country’s more famous attractions, which is roughly what you should expect from a park sitting in the Andes lake district, competing for attention against Patagonia, Iguazu, and the penguins of Punta Tombo.

It should not be overlooked.

What You Are Getting Into

Nahuel Huapi covers roughly 710,000 hectares of Andean landscape in the Neuquén and Río Negro provinces, spanning from dense Valdivian temperate rainforest in the west (shared with the Chilean lake district across the border) to steppe grasslands in the east. The centerpiece is Lake Nahuel Huapi itself, a glacially carved basin at 767 meters above sea level, 100 kilometers long in its longest arm, with a shoreline so irregular it feels larger than the numbers suggest.

The gateway city is San Carlos de Bariloche, on the lake’s southern shore. Bariloche is a functioning Argentine city of around 140,000 people, not a resort village, which means it has real infrastructure: multiple airports, bus connections, supermarkets, and a restaurant scene that runs from local parillas to reasonably ambitious cooking. The downside is that the city center around Calle Mitre is unambiguously touristy, with Swiss-Alpine architecture built to evoke Central Europe and chocolate shops that have made Bariloche’s reputation as the “chocolate capital of Argentina.”

The chocolate is fine. The park is extraordinary.

Where to Go in the Park

Cerro Tronador is the single most dramatic destination in the park and requires a full day. Tronador (the name means “Thunderer”) sits at 3,478 meters on the Argentine-Chilean border and is blanketed by glaciers, including the Manso Glacier on its eastern flank. The road from Bariloche to the trailhead at Pampa Linda passes through old-growth arrayán and coihue forest, crosses multiple streams, and arrives at a valley floor surrounded by peaks. The name comes from the sound of ice breaking off the glaciers and crashing into the ravines below. You will hear it before you arrive if conditions are right.

Cerro Catedral is the major ski area in the park, operating from June to September. In summer it becomes a hiking destination, with cable cars and chairlifts providing access to high-altitude trails above the treeline with views across the lake district that justify the chairlift fee even if you are not planning to hike far. The summit restaurant, with its views of Nahuel Huapi and the surrounding cordillera, is the best food you can eat at altitude in this part of Patagonia.

Victoria Island in the center of Lake Nahuel Huapi is reached by boat from Puerto Pañuelo and holds the Arrayanes Forest, a grove of arrayán myrtle trees with distinctive cinnamon-colored bark that is found almost nowhere else on earth. Disney animators visited before designing Bambi; the forest has the otherworldly quality of having been art-directed. The island also has hiking trails and a restaurant serving trout pulled from the lake.

The Seven Lakes Route connects Bariloche to San Martín de los Andes through 110 kilometers of sealed and gravel road passing seven separate glacial lakes. This is worth driving rather than busing: the ability to stop at viewpoints, explore short trails, and time your arrival at different lakes for different light is what makes it memorable. Plan for a full day minimum.

Cascada Los Cantaros on the Llao Llao peninsula near the hotel of the same name is a forty-minute round-trip walk that drops into a forest canyon to reach a substantial waterfall. The trailhead is crowded in peak season but the walk itself is genuinely beautiful.

Trekking: The Honest Assessment

Nahuel Huapi has one of the best mountain refuge networks in South America, maintained by the Club Andino Bariloche. The hut-to-hut circuit from Bariloche to Refugio Frey, Refugio Jakob, and back is the classic multi-day trek, taking three to five days depending on pace. Refugio Frey sits above the treeline on Laguna Frey, surrounded by granite spires that have made it a destination for climbers as well as trekkers. The refugios serve hot food and basic accommodation (shared bunkrooms) for around USD 40 to 60 per person per night.

The trekking season runs December to March, with October through November and April through May also viable for lower-altitude trails. Winter (June to September) transforms the park into a ski destination; non-skiers will find the trails closed and some refugios shut.

One honest note: Argentine national park trail marking is not Swiss precision. Carry a GPS track or paper topo map, particularly above the treeline. The trekbariloche.com site run by local guides has reliable trail conditions and GPX downloads.

Bariloche: Where to Eat

El Boliche de Alberto, on the outskirts of Bariloche proper, is the parrilla that gets mentioned most consistently by locals and visitors with good reason. The portions are enormous, the beef is properly Argentine in quality, and the lamb and sausage are specific to the region. Expect to pay ARS 15,000 to 25,000 per person depending on what you order (prices are volatile; check current exchange rates).

Cervecería Manush in the city center makes its own beer, including a honey variety and a milk stout, in a city where the German and Swiss immigrant heritage means the craft beer culture is more developed than most of Argentina. The food menu holds up alongside the beer, which is not always true at brewpubs.

Il Gabbiano near Llao Llao serves Italian food with the kind of seriousness you might not expect at a resort hotel perimeter: rabbit in rosemary and garlic, proper antipasti, house pasta. Worth the drive out of the city center for a longer lunch.

The chocolate shops along Calle Mitre are a ritual even if they have become a parody of themselves. Rapa Nui and Mamushka both make genuinely good dark chocolate. Buy a small box, eat it on the waterfront, move on.

Where to Stay

Llao Llao Hotel and Resort is the correct answer to “what is the best hotel in the Argentine lake district.” Designed by architect Alejandro Bustillo and opened in 1938 (the current building after a fire in the original), it sits on its own peninsula between two lakes, facing the Andes with a view that has appeared on Argentine currency. Rooms run from around USD 500 to 900 per night in peak summer season, and the property maintains its own activities program (archery, tennis, boating, rafting) as a self-contained resort. Worth one or two nights even if you are not a resort person, because the architecture and the setting are something in themselves.

For a more practical base in Bariloche, the hotels along the lakefront or in the residential neighborhood behind Mitre offer mid-range options at USD 80 to 180 per night, within walking distance of the bus station and hiking trailheads.

Villa La Angostura, 80 kilometers north of Bariloche on the lake’s northern shore, is the more elegant alternative if the city feels too busy. A small town with a pedestrian main street and boutique guesthouses, it serves as the gateway to the Arrayanes Forest trail on the Quetrihué Peninsula (accessible by foot or boat, with no vehicles). Better food, better quiet, but dependent on renting a car to explore the park fully.

Getting There and Around

Bariloche has international airport connections from Buenos Aires (Aeroparque, one hour fifteen minutes) and some direct routes from Santiago de Chile. The airport is 15 kilometers from the city center; remis (pre-booked car services, not metered taxis) are the standard transfer and cost around ARS 8,000 to 12,000.

Within the park, renting a car is strongly recommended. Public buses cover the main routes (Llao Llao peninsula, Cerro Catedral) but Tronador, the Seven Lakes Route, and the more remote trailheads require your own transport. Local rental companies in Bariloche are cheaper than international chains and the local staff generally know the road conditions better.

The park does not have a single entry point or traditional entrance fee structure for the most commonly visited areas. Specific sites (boat trips, Cerro Catedral chairlift) charge separately. Check current fee information at the Intendencia de Parques Nacionales office in Bariloche before your first day, as prices change with Argentine inflation and in 2025 are quoted in Argentine pesos.

Best months: November and March shoulder the crowds while keeping trail conditions good and the refugios open. February is peak summer with full services and full prices; July and August are ski season and the park wears a different character entirely.